Norway Trip - Part III (Tromsø Walkabout)

Really, I just wanted to show off the rest of my photos, just kidding. :p Tromsø is such a nice city, of course I need to share our general impression of the city and some useful tips, if you also decide to visit someday.

Tromsø is an island city, probably the only flat piece of land in the area big enough to have an airport. Lol! Therefore, the airport is only a 5-min drive from Tromsø Sentrum where all the hotels are. You can take the express bus that costs 90 NOK p.p. Or if you're travelling with more than 1, taxi fare is only around 160-190 NOK depending on the time of the day. *Notes: There are no bank ATMs, but some 'foreign exchange' machines at the airport. The rate is actually quite decent, and you'll need NOKs to buy the tickets on the bus, or from another machine. Our tour guide told us if you download their transport app, then you get discounts on bus tickets. It's a good idea to do that since the fare is ridiculous! 50 NOK for a single fare, which is about 5 euro! Since the city is so bloody small, it's not hard to walk between all the attractions.

As I mentioned in my previous post, winter boots are a must if you're visiting in winter! Duh!! I don't own any, and it really helped with keeping my feet warm and dry despite having 3 layers of socks on. Meanwhile, poor Graham got his feet wet when walking/playing in snow too much. :p The city centre is a little boring, given how small the city is. It still has everything you need though.

I think you get the idea, boats are everywhere! 

We really wanted to walk across the bridge to get to the Arctic Cathedral. I always come up with stupid ideas like that and think it would be fun, but I'm really really afraid of heights, and you can guess how well that went. The bridge is not that long but is quite narrow and curved. My main problem was that it did not feel safe at all; it shook every time someone else walked by, and the railing looked slightly thicker than chicken wires... Anyway, I died, so Graham took most of the photos for this leg of our trip.

Me staying as far away from the edge as possible! I think this was the halfway point.

Tromsø harbour close up

The other side is called Tromsdalen, our next destination is on top of that hill.

The Arctic Cathedral somewhat reminded me of the Sydney Opera House, they are both white with glass panels and pointy tops. Lol! We didn't go inside, but the organ can be seen behind the glass and is really tall (how it should be).

I guess pointy white things somewhat translate to 'Arctic', like glaciers, snowy mountains, icy tundra and polar bears?

The crazy bridge that I do not want to walk across again!

I don't really know why I keep going to places that'll make me sick, but our next stop was the cable car (Fjellheisen) that goes up the mountain with a cabin that sticks out over the cliff! It is about a 10-min walk from the Arctic Cathedral, there's also a nearby bus stop, which we had to take on the way back. Not exaggerating, I got so sick after all this I had to throw up and take heaps of tablets before we headed out for the evening's aurora hunt! >.<

I don't know, is the view worth all the puke and headache I had to deal with? You can be the judge.

The snow-capped mountain tops look like fluffy whipped cream! Yummmm! XD

The islands behind Tromsø we drove to the day before, not sure if anyone lives on the tiny one one the left.

Of course, these photos were taken by Graham on the edge of the viewing deck while I hid somewhere safe far behind.

There's outside area where you can walk along anywhere on the mountain behind us. There's a ski resort (Tromsø AlpinPark) not too far away from here, but you can totally just cross-country ski here or take your dogs for a fun walk! I think having a dog (or any pet really, since I prefer to walk my cats) in this part of the world is probably a must to keep you sane in the dark winter days.

I know the viewing deck doesn't look that scary, but the wind made it worse. Lol, I'm just weak!

Someone really likes the snow, I mean these mountains are pretty fantastic for snow sports. 

Never ending snow.  ^^

I mean Captain Squeaky is like the national mascot/food here, but I think he prefers travelling the world to getting clubbed...

We can't emphasise on how much we enjoyed this holiday and how much we like snow! Hope you enjoyed it through our photos and my silly/long winded commentary. Or if you're a fan of the Captain, he can't wait to show you all the other places he's been to in the future, so stay tuned. 

Norway Trip - Part I (Tromsø Coastal Driving)

Ok, I had to get this post out ASAP after our trip because all of our family and friends are eager to see the beautiful photos I've taken after seeing Graham's teasers on FB. Part I of this post is about our driving tour around the area, and Part II will be on Aurora hunting and Tromsø City.

First, we visited Tromsø in northern Norway mainly in hope of seeing the Aurora Borealis before the season ended. Why did I decide to pick Tromsø? It is not even on the top 10 destinations if you search for 'Aurora hunting' on Google! I didn't want to fall for those overpriced, potentially overrated tourist traps anyway, so I searched for the most populated cities in the Arctic Circle instead. After some internet research and Google Maps reading, it became more attractive to us as it offered many outdoor and wildlife activities, beautiful and unique landscapes, a good chance of seeing the aurora even with a really low Kp index (< 1), and it is not an overcrowded tourist destination. Here are some information on Tromsø and what it offers.

We hired a car to drive around the islands and fjords for a day, we highly recommend it if you like to drive. Fortunately the weather was good enough for us to have a pleasant and safe drive along the coastal roads during the day, and allowed us to see plenty of aurora in the evening on our own hunting trip. We only drove one day, since it was only a 3-day holiday.

As is my posting style, I'll be explaining the details of our trip with route information on some cutely edited maps. The roads are super windy and there are plenty of pit stops along the way for photo opportunities.

I have to also define what a Fjord is. We were super confused at what we were looking at and were calling everything a fjord, our Norwegian tour guide (not from this part of the trip) had to keep correcting us. Lol! Check out the National Geographic for fjords with nice photos and Wiki for Norwegian geography if you're interested in some extra reading.

A Fjord (inlet) is a long, deep, narrow body of water that reaches far inland, often ends in a U-shaped valley with steep walls of rock on either side. There are lots of rivers, lakes and straits as well, so it's really hard to tell unless you look at the map. Or it'll just be in the name of the town! Lol! 

Before we started, I had to hire some winter walking boots since my leather boots had no tread or insulation whatsoever! We asked the shop assistant and he suggested Sommarøy island as a nice destination. There are two ways to get there, through the mountain pass that cuts across the island of Kvaløya or the longer coastal road. We decided to check out Ersfjordbotn first and taking the mountain pass to Sommarøy first. It was the correct choice, as the mountain pass was more treacherous and was better navigated in daylight than no light at all if we came back late in the afternoon! The coastal drive was a little featureless, just mountains after mountains. Pretty, but boring.

At Ersfjordbotn, there's a little rocky outpost that is still covered in snow, so we walked all the way out to the tip of it. Not sure if it's as accessible when all the ice and snow melts. Be Careful where you step! Follow previous footsteps if possible, or you might end up in a wet rocky foothole!

Ersfjordbotn - this side of the land strip appears to be a boat/yacht harbour. The road ends here and our car is parked all the way back there.

The other side of the strip and around the U-bend valley is where most people live.

Half way there, aiming for the big rock in the far centre right.

Despite the heavy clouds and a glimpse of sunshine, this place looks pretty amazing!

At the rock, it has now been claimed by Captain Squeaky as the first Seal landing!

Finally reached the end, I don't think testing the water was a good idea.

Panorama of Ersfjordbotn! Must be nice to live with such a view!

Just realised how clear the water is even this close to the shore! More super clear, blue water to come!

The drive across the island was quite scary at first; the path is lined by some red light-reflecting sticks and a 1-2 meter pile of snow as your crumple zone. Fortunately, not many people drove at this time of the day, and we got used to the condition quite quickly. Until you have to pull so far off the side that you're just about to fall off the track to let some truck go past...phewwwwww

The next fjord we drove past was frozen halfway up the inlet! Apparently it's quite normal for that to happen, but it was a big deal for us since frozen canals are no longer a thing. :( 

Wonder if people actually just walk across it, maybe with snowshoes, would be so much faster than driving around it.

Can you see the thin line of water where the fjord is no frozen? These red sticks are not  really a good indication of the road, cos they're in the snow!

More panorama of the magnificent view! IMO, this fjord looks nicer than the last one. :p

As we get closer to Sommarøy, a unique mountainous island started to emerge from the background. It piqued Graham's interest when it was only an interesting-shaped peak behind all the other mountains along the coast. Then it turned out to be an awesome mountain island (added by Graham).

Here I present Håja, Graham's favourite landmark from this entire trip, aka. Graham's island!

The bridge to Sommarøy is one-lane only, so you have to wait at each end at the lights to cross. There's a little cafe for refreshment and a Hotel in the first section of the island There's a smaller second bridge that connects to the rest of the island where people live. According to our tour guide, this island is a fish receiving port from fishing boats. It is also a great spot for aurora viewing.

You can walk over this bridge just like most other bridges, but it's so narrow I don't know if it's a good idea...

The Arctic Hotel looks like it has some nice houses and a great view of all the small islands (skerries) in the area. It even has a rockpool/lagoon!

Really shallow water here, would be really nice in summer!

The last leg of the drive was along the bottom of the Kvaløya island. Because it was so boring and relatively more populated that the middle of the island, we decided to do a little detour to a small island of Håkøya between Tromsø and Kvaløya. Again, there's only 1 road in and out of the island and the end of it was big enough for a bus to turn around. We were pretty exhausted by that time and went home for a nap before more driving for an evening of aurora hunting.

Yeah, another bridge! This one is flat though.

This is the large bridge connecting Tromsø and Kvaløya. There's just too much incline on these Norwegian bridges!

Overall, driving allowed us to see a lot of interesting things at our own pace. We were interested in a tour that also takes you on this island, but it was booked out. We didn't see any reindeers despite passing several 'Reindeer crossing' signs. We did see a herd of cross-country skiers preparing for their adventure across the middle of the island though. :p

Amsterdam on a sunny Sunday afternoon

Be prepared, this post is going to be bombed with photos and is somewhat like a walkthrough of what we did.

Blessed with such beautiful autumn weather, we went into Amsterdam last Sunday (our third day in the country). It's like a weekend trip into Sydney CBD from Blacktown (or equivalent distance), but faster.

We arrived at Amsterdam Centraal station, and it was packed! So first impression would be that this place is full of tourists (including us)! I have to say, it's a bit of a clusterfuck but still somehow organised. The sheer amount of traffic is quite overwhelming for someone who doesn't particularly like crowds, yes, that's me. I'll let the photos describe the craziness!

I mean, Ok, this doesn't look too bad, right?! Then you turn around, BAM!!

This is only a section of the view, since I haven't figured out how to do a panorama shot. The bus has conveniently covered the main street where people are packed like sardines!

Second impression; Everything is sooo PRETTY! So I got carried away taking lots of photos of the central canals.

That funky building in the centre background is the Hilton hotel...

I think the tallest buildings in this place are churches...

Quintessential Dutch canal houses! I rather not live in one of them; you'll never get your shit back if you drop it out of the window!

We didn't really have a plan of attack on this city, so we just wandered around like some lost puppies. The only aim Graham had was to find their local game store, so everything else on the way is a bonus. So we went along the main street and stopped to take more photos of the Royal Palace Amsterdam and Madame Tussauds. 

Maybe it only feels more crowded than it looks? :P

Ok, looking more crowded now! Graham just has to check out a back alley.

     

Miffy in traditional Delft blue Dutch dress and we tried some nice aged gouda.

And a boring picture of the Royal Palace. At least the bell in the clocktower still works.

We then turned off the main street onto some quieter streets heading west. I was glad that we went around the outer canals first, not only because it was much more peaceful and picturesque, we were not getting intoxicated by the horrible weed smell shrouding the central streets. I don't have a problem with weed, I just don't like the smell and it makes me sick (physically). In fact, Graham and I both got sick from our final leg of exploring and walking past too many 'Coffee Shops' and decided to just go home because of that!

Lol, trying to take a photo while crossing the road and the light is about to turn red... This place is pretty crazy alright!

This is the sort of photos you guys have been waiting for right? Pretty canals, bridges, boats, nice houses on the side? Good news for you, I got more! :P

     

We still can't get over the fact that the buildings are all tipping over! Not that they'll fall over, just rather disconcerting...

OMG, boat houses! They are sooooo awesome! XD 

Swans are everywhere, and swans don't give a fuck! Charging at the tourists like a boss! 

I hope you're sick of canal pictures by now. Anyway, there were some pretty quaint, expensive, designer, novelty and boutique stores and lay-back cafes hidden in the smaller streets. It was just really enjoyable to walk around and checking out some extra nice houses on our way.

The nice little houses and the ambience makes up for the few tourists taking photos of everything. :P

Too bad it's not open, but we would totally eat there - Quattro Gatti Italian restaurant!

Store front of Hermes, so much nicer than our stupid, snobby Sydney store! They actually sell things I would buy, just can't afford them!

The lost puppy has finally found a new home, will they adopt him though? 

     

I think I found a new hobby too! ^.^ Mosaic craft by PixelHobby

Haven't found an art supply store, but this is much more luxurious! Mc Lennan's Pure Silk

Two of the most adorable/pretty houses we've found so far.

        

I really like this part of Amsterdam, just delightful to stroll through! Sunflowers for my love! <3

Thanks for reading until the very end. I hope you all enjoyed the part of Amsterdam we have currently explored. The main thing is stay away from the 'Coffee Shops' if you're here to see the beauty of this city, or if you think you'll get sick from the weed smell like us... There are so much more to see and do here, the next post would be on our anniversary high tea experience! Stay tuned! 

p.s. We did visit the red light district - De Wallen, and it was not very eventful during the day. Don't think we'll go there again. Lol! We did watch fallen bicycles getting fished out of the canals though, and shit loads of swans!